If you wanted to put down an order for an automatic Suzuki Jimny, you’ve already missed out.
Suzuki Australia recently reopened orders for 500 examples of the in-demand three-door Jimny automatic on September 18 at 12PM AEST, and less than five hours later all the units were snapped up.
The company claims when orders opened certain metropolitan dealers wrote over 40 orders for the Jimny automatic.
In addition, Suzuki Australia claims 34 orders for the three-door Jimny manual were taken at dealers in the five-hour timeframe.
The little three-door Jimny has been in short supply since its debut in 2019. In July this year, Suzuki Australia (which distributes the brand’s vehicles nationwide, with the exception of Queensland) confirmed wait times for the three-door manual Jimny were longer than six months.
Two-tone cars are the hardest to source due to limited production.
The Jimny range will soon be expanded with a longer five-door model that’s due to launch locally in the first quarter of 2024. Pricing and standard specification for this new body style is set to be announced this November.
During the time three-door Jimny automatic orders were reopened, Suzuki Australia dealers took 62 Jimny five-door pre-orders. The company now claims to have received over 1500 pre-orders for the longer five-door model.
At 3985mm long, the Jimny five-door is 340mm longer than the regular three-door model, with all of this length added to the wheelbase which now spans 2590mm.
Ground clearance is a claimed 210mm.
There are no changes to the drivetrain to handle the added bulk, with the current 1.5-litre petrol carrying over, mated to a part-time four-wheel drive system with low-range, and available with five-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission options.
It’s unclear what supply of the Jimny five-door will look like when it launches locally.
The three-door model initially was more popular as a manual, though the sales split shifted over time to the automatic – hence orders for the latter being paused in the face of rampant demand.
To the end of August, Suzuki has sold 3893 Jimnys – narrowly behind the Swift at 4615 sales. The more practical Jimny five-door is likely to push Jimny sales to even greater heights.
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